Archives

In brief, my position on Bev Oda is that in my view, resigning her Cabinet position and as an MP is probably one of the few things Bev Oda did correctly in her eight year tenure at Parliament Hill. It was long overdue.

In a more general sense, it will give us an early barometer of two things: first, what people think of Harper’s policies since he and the Conservatives got their majority last year. This is a riding that did vote for and sent Liberal MP’s to office not too long ago, so it is not necessarily a “safe-blue” seat, as a riding like Oxford is. Secondly, we’ll also […]

Ellie Kirzner of NOW Magazine takes apart Jason Kenney and his ally in the Toronto Star Rosie DiManno, and their attacks on KAIROS. I’m going to quote a large excerpt, because it’s a good piece:

…So unsettling is the anti-Semitism charge that many are preferring to believe that Kenney really didn’t say what it seems he said. Rosie DiManno in Monday’s Star argues that the minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism didn’t overtly accuse KAIROS of anything but merely opined that the group had taken “a leadership role in the boycott’’ of Israel. That’s the tack the Canada Israel Committee is taking too. When I ask Sara Saber, the organization’s […]

This got passed on to me from the United Church of Canada Twitter feed (yes, I was a bit surprised they use Twitter). They’ve linked to a page over at KAIROS that lists seven things you can do to support KAIROS and try to let the federal Conservatives know you don’t appreciate or support their funding cuts.

I’ll note as an aside that not listed in the members of the Federal Cabinet to contact is Jason Kenney, the Minister of Immigration who set off the firestorm by claiming KAIROS Canada’s funding was cut because they were anti-Israel/anti-Semitic, so I’m slightly curious whether this page was made before Jason Kenney opened […]

As I was hoping they’d do, the member churches that belong to KAIROS Canada are starting to push back against the federal Conservatives and Jason Kenney for his remarks that KAIROS Canada was stopped CIDA funding due to the organization being anti-Semitic or anti-Israel:

The United Church of Canada and other Canadian churches are demanding Prime Minister Stephen Harper explain why one of his cabinet ministers accused them of being anti-Semitic. The United, Catholic and Anglican churches are part of KAIROS, an aid group that was shocked to hear Immigration Minister Jason Kenney say its funding was lifted as part of the Conservatives’ effort to cut off anti-Semitic organizations. “It’s […]

KAIROS Canada has just issued a news release responding to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s statements that CIDA funding was cut to it because of the organization supposedly being anti-Israel/anti-Semitic. I’ve highlighted a main point (or two) in here amongst some other very relevant and troubling issues that KAIROS Canada has brought up. It appears that Minister Kenney is confusing 2 different organizations statements and positions:

The Minister of International Cooperation, Bev Oda, has been telling KAIROS, Parliament and the Canadian people that funding to KAIROS was cut because its work did not fit current Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) priorities of economic growth, food security and children and youth.

While I will talk about anything politically on here, I normally do not discuss matters to do with the Middle East, because in my experience, any attempt at discussing that rationally unfortunately eventually leads one to either getting called a “pro-Zionist” or an “anti-Semitic”. I am going to make an exception here today to discuss something that I find particularly galling: federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s reasoning given over in Jerusalem for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) cutting funding to KAIROS Canada, a multi-denominational Christian aid group that works for social justice causes.

According to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, the reason that KAIROS Canada funding was cut was […]